It's Payback Time for Korean Chaebol

An airline tycoon's daughter flies into a rage over macadamia nuts and lands in jail. A carmaker decides to write a $10 billion check for trophy real estate. The family controlling the country's largest conglomerate cocks a snook at activist investors and extends its control on the cheap, and a retail giant is caught in a power struggle between its chairman and his 93-year-old father.

That's only a partial summary of the headlines South Korea's chaebol have made over the past 15 months, but you get the picture. Korea Inc., or at least the large swathes of it dominated by conglomerates, is living up to its well-earned reputation for bad behavior. It's dispiriting for some investors, but most have resigned themselves to the country's poor record of rewarding shareholders. Among developed Asian nations, Korean stocks offer the lowest dividend yields.